RT prepares to broadcast in high definition with Lawo

The Russian broadcaster inaugurates a new fully equipped HD studio complex.

Addressing an international audience of 630 million viewers in more than 100 countries, the Russian broadcaster RT broadcasts programming based on documentaries, interviews, debates, sports and cultural programs, in addition to numerous news bulletins throughout the day,

With public capital, RT has just moved into a new studio complex in Moscow, fully equipped in high definition. Formerly known as Russia Today, RT has launched studios for its English, Arabic and Spanish channels, along with new Studio, Production and Backup studios.

The complex is a combination of modern architecture and classic industrial buildings, completely renovated and equipped with a state-of-the-art facility.

The broadcaster had been using Zirkon consoles from Theirs for production duties in its old facility and is now using a total of six Lawo mc² 66 MkIIs as on-air/production consoles and three Crystal Desks for dubbing and voice-overs, along with a Lawo Nova73 HD as a matrix routed center (8192x8192 crosspoints) and seven mxGUI servers providing additional remote graphical interfaces.

Nova73HD offers RAVENNA, AES3, MADI and SDH/STM-1 interfaces, and features a hot-pluggable and online configuration capability that allows reconfiguration and expansion of a system even during a live broadcast. Additionally, Lawo's STAR² technology provides an exceptionally high level of redundancy and fail-safe operation.

Total redundancy

The Lawo system has been designed to offer rigorous redundancy, throughout the system. Additionally, its flexibility ensures that I/O resources are accessible from all studios and control rooms with access rights management. This is achieved by connecting all input and output points to both the Nova73 HD as well as all mixing consoles, while the control software is raised as a local signal, regardless of its physical location. The Lawo network takes care of all the management and ensures that all connecting lines have an additional backup route available.

Network resources and rights management are a client-specific configuration based on TCL (Tool Command Language).

The key to how it works is that a very large number of input and output resources are managed very simply, with instant and easy portability between different room configurations.

Anton Maksimov, sound editor at RT, has assured that "Lawo consoles offer many features for easy and comfortable operation during live broadcasting. One of them is that the buses are automatically pre-configured, but at the same time they provide enough flexibility for fine tuning, allowing easy handling during live broadcasts with multiple external sources. One of the most important features is the ability to easily trace the signal flow, which can help a new user to know the details of a previous configuration. Also very useful is the limited source control on the second layer, even without having to change layers, as well as free assignable control modules and user buttons on the surface for quick access to the most frequently used functions.